Let’s Talk BBQ: Connect with Us

Temperature Reached

Low and Slow is out dated no its not. There are many cooks out there that is all they know. Some of the best BBQ in the world was cooked low and slow. But these days wrapping your BBQ and indirect heat has brought in a new era of cooking. An Offset Smoker allows radiant heat to come through to the meat without burning with 1200 F briquette within 6 inches of the meat. Temperature control is critical. Pitmaster IQ 110

Steaks can be cooked in 4 minutes using direct heat. Two minutes on each side of the steak. Steak can be reverse seared where the steak is wrapped and cooked for an hour to start with and then put on direct heat and seared on each side.

The thinner the meat doesn’t matter, 300 F will take care of all your cooking needs. Temperatures of 300 F are good for a lot of meat. I really believe in 300 F. Gas, Pellet, Charcoal, Wood it doesn’t matter what the fuel. Its just the perfect cooking temperature.

You can make BBQ seem as hard as you in the interest of making yourself look really smart or you can simplify things and cook at a perfect temperature to start with to get the best results.

Two Step Process to cooking BBQ

Reaching the right temperature

Breaking down the proteins

You can reach the right temperature but you have to break down the proteins to get the right texture. That is where the Cambro can help you. Resting Times, extended cooking times at lower temperatures. Using protein breakdown accelerators like ascorbic acid, mandelic acid, the acidity in marinades like fruit juices.

Smoking Times and Temperatures Infograph

Barbecuing and smoking foods are popular summer pastimes. It can, however, be tricky to remember the temperature at which something should be barbecued, how long it should cook, or when it is ready. Overdone and undercooked meat can spoil even the most entertaining party.

The following infograph provides the needed information to help you smoke your food properly. It provides all the information needed regarding times and temperatures. It is easiest to read from the outermost ring first.

Kind of food

The outermost ring simply has the name of the item. The items to be smoked include fish, chicken, pork, turkey, and beef. The second ring contains a picture of the item that shows how it looks when properly cooked.

Cooking temperature

The third ring lists the temperature or temperature range to be used when smoking the item. Knowing this information will help you make sure your food is cooked completely and safe to eat. Using wood chips for grilling will not only help maintain the desired temperature, it will also give the food a great smoky flavor.

Time

The fourth ring lists the time needed to smoke a specific food. In some cases, the time required to thoroughly smoke something will depend on the item’s weight. For example, the sliced brisket calls for 1.5 hours of smoking per pound. Someone smoking four pounds of sliced brisket will therefore need to grill it for six hours.

That, by the way, is typical. Smoking meat takes time. Even a meatball with a diameter of two inches takes an hour to smoke. A whole turkey takes 6.5 hours to be at its tastiest. The hours spent smoking the meat will not only ensure that it is safe to eat, they will also allow the meat to thoroughly absorb the flavor from the smoke. Barbecue grills with lids are most useful in this endeavor.

Finish temperature

The fifth and final wheel lists the temperature that the finished product should have. In some cases, like the baby back ribs, there won’t be specific temperature listed. It will simply say “Tender,” which means you cook the meat until it is tender. In order to determine that a given meat has reached its “done” temperature, you will need a wireless meat thermometer. You will also need the thermometer to help keep your meat at its proper cooking temperature.

Spare ribs as an example

Let’s say you want to smoke spare ribs. You look for the name and picture of the spare ribs on the two outermost rings. The third circle tells you have to smoke the ribs at a temperature between 225 F° and 240 F°. The fourth circle says it takes six to seven hours to smoke the ribs, and the fifth says to cook them until they are tender.

Brining does not technically “break down” proteins in meat. At least not the way marinating does.

Brining actually involves osmosis which carries salt and sugar inside the cell walls. This denatures the proteins causing them to unravel and interact with one another. This forms a matrix which traps moisture in the meat.

Marinating on the other hand actually does “break down” the proteins using acidity. The acid literally does consume the proteins and break down the texture of the meat. If the marinade has salt in it, then osmosis will occur as well and the marinade is also serving as a brine.

So, to answer your question: Yes, a salty marinade will brine your meat, but the protein breakdown that occurs is due to the acidity of the marinade.

Over 205 too done you have pot roast it will fall apart okay for stay at home backyard.

Ribs

Start Cooking Temperature 300 F 2 hours

Second Temperature 275 F 1 1/2 hours

Third Temperature 225 F Set the Glaze

Target Temperature 185F-190F

Not usually done by temperature by lift in the middle check the flex

Cut off the first bone and check it when its done.

You only have a 15 minutes window to get it right

That is a Championship Temperature Profile.

I would never serve any meat at less than 160.

Steak

Medium Rare

Start Temperature 450F 2 minutes on each side

Target internal Temperature 145 F

Get some good grill marks 10 o’clock 2 o’clock

Well Done

Wrap it cook at 3oo Degrees for 30-60 minutes

Sear at 450 F 2 minutes on eat side

Target internal Temperature 160 F

Rare

Starting Temperature 450 F

1-2 minutes each side

Target Temperature 130

Hamburgers

95/5

Start Temperature 300 F

Internal Temperature 170 F

Cooks like a Steak

85/15

Start Temperature 300 F

Internal Temperature 175

Make sure its done in the center

75/15

Start Temperature 350 F

5 minutes each side take it down 300 F

Maybe done depending on how thick they are

Make sure these are done

Veal

Rare

Start off Temperature 300 F

Internal Temperature 130

Medium

Start off Temperature 300 F

Internal Temperature 145 F

Well Done

Start off Temperature 300 F

Internal Temperature 160 F

Put the Butts in at 10pm, cook till 4am at 250 F Run the temperature up to 300 F and put the Briskets in.

Start the second cooker at 7am put the ribs in. 9:30 am put the chicken in. The run by the temps above should be okay for a Florida BBQ Association competition.

There is more raw chicken, turkey, ribs, pork being served in BBQ than you can imagine. Especially at BBQ Contest. If the target temperature of a type of meat like chicken is 160 F what does that mean? Coming to Temperature in a Texas Crutch or Boat give you a better chance of being done.

It means run the internal temperature up to 160 and keep it there till its done. Most people run it up to 175 F to get it done, 190 F its ruined. Chicken a lot of times will finish cooking in the Cambro. What about a Boston Butt. I’ve seen a champion run a Butt up to 185 F internal temperature and keep it there for 2 hours to make sure the Butt is done. Take it out open the tin foil. Let it set for 30 minutes to let the steam out of the 185 F Butt then put it in the Cambro for 15 minutes. Take it out, remove the tin foil put sauce on it and stick it back in the cooker for 20 minutes to set a glaze on the Butt to add flavor the box prep.

The target temperature is the place you aught to stop raising the temperature at. Its not necessarily the place to jerk the meat out of the cooker. That is where cooking comes in. How long do you maintain the meat at that internal temperature to get the consistency you want in the finished product. Is that temperature target the minimum safe temperature or the finish temperature to get the right bite through you want. You have to determine your own target temperatures to get the consistency you want. Some temperature people spew are the FDA recommended safe temperatures.

That is why a championship cooks, cook chicken every day for 30 days to learn the right temperature to get the right consistency. The same with Butts, Ribs, Brisket, this is expensive these days.

That is why you keep records of exact times and temperatures for each cook to get a professional time line together. You should know what you have to do every 15 minutes then every 5 minutes.

If you walk up on a turkey and pull on the leg and thigh and its still stuck on like a turkey in the barn yard. The turkey isn’t done. There are more under cooked turkey served every year than you can shake a stick at. Common sense goes a long way. A lot of cooks don’t use thermometers for this reason. The thermometer might say its the right temperature but the pork, ribs, chicken, beef, turkey meat is saying I’m not done.

Your guest are not eating the temperature reading, they are eating the food you just put in front of them. That is where being a cook comes in. A lot of half way scientific talk may impress someone with little education but the truth is we are bring a highly hydrated piece of material to a certain temperature. Then we are breaking down the proteins. Its a two step process. Bringing it to the right temperature doesn’t automatically mean the proteins are broke down. BBQ Guru

A Cambro can hide a multiple of sins. If your chicken just seems not to want to release. Let it set in the Cambro for 30 minutes. There may be something to be said about putting a blanket around the tin foil pan aluminum wrapped BBQ Meat before you put it in the Cambro. Double hold. To keep all the cooking power and return of the juice into the meat.